The present invention generally relates to an image processing apparatus, and more particularly to an image processing apparatus for generating an image including a number of graphic symbols the sizes of which are well adjusted and the centers of which are aligned with each other, by receiving an input graphics image, especially a manually drawn flowchart image. This apparatus is applicable to digital printers, facsimile machines, digital copiers or the like.
There conventionally are several image recognition methods and systems for recognizing a configuration of an image produced by transforming an image signal obtained by raster scanning through an image processing procedure. The conventional techniques as mentioned above are disclosed, for example, in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication Nos. 54-154935, 55-83972, 56-59374, 56-105567, 59-52384, and 60-24681. Other methods for recognizing a configuration of a graphic image taken from a bit map image, the bit map image being transformed into a vector data and the graphic image being taken from the vector data, are disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication Nos. 56-105580, 57-25083, 57-150075, 58-18776, 58-24974, 59-24974, 59-22175, 59-22178, 61-877, 60-45887, 60-142486, 61-74078, 61-74079, 61-182183, 61-208171, and 62-133588.
Among the publications mentioned above, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 58-18776 discloses a method for recognizing a configuration of a graphic image wherein distances between the graphic image center and the graphic image edge points are computed for each angular direction around the center, and wherein the image configuration is recognized from differentials of a function indicating the relationship between the computed distances and the angular directions.
Also, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 61-877 discloses a method for recognizing a configuration of a graphic image wherein edge points of an outline are taken from a bit map image, and the image configuration is recognized from a function indicating the relationship between the edge positions and the image density values. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 62-133588 discloses an image recognition device wherein intersecting points and connecting points in a graphic image are detected, and a small region of the image containing the detected points is compared with a standard pattern in a dictionary stored in a memory so as to recognize the configuration of the graphic image.
However, in the conventional techniques, it is difficult to output an image including graphic symbols whose sizes are balanced with each other and whose centers are aligned, from a roughly written input flowchart image by making use of the conventional apparatus. In order to achieve such a function with the existing image recognition apparatus, installing a complicated program in a computer system is required. Also, the users must acquire the knowledge of computer graphics and the skill of computer operations. In the meantime, the work of developing a flowchart by hand or manually drawing a diagram using a ruler or template is time consuming and troublesome to the users. Therefore, it is desirable to receive a manually written flowchart image including a set of graphic symbols whose sizes and position are irregularly arranged, and automatically generate a flowchart image in which the sizes of the graphic symbols are adjusted to a balanced condition and the positions of the centers thereof are aligned suitably.